Recap: The IMMAP Open Mic Night 2

Last night Salon De Ning was packed with the digerati of the Philippines. Various bloggers, marketers, community managers, and ad agency peeps all came together to celebrate the values of thought leadership and communication with the IMMAP Open Mic Night 2. Three sets of speakers talked about #Bawal, #WhatRocksMySocks, and #ItsMoreFunInThePhilippines in a fishbowl un-conference format. Add to that the socials, networking, and crazy strong drinks from Casa Noble and you have a #Winning event!

Twitter Theme

Everything about Salon De Ning last night had a reference to Twitter. The stage had a massive Twitter backdrop, there were Twitter ice sculptures, Twitter birds hanging on the ceiling, and even Twitter birds perched on the shoulders of the waiters! The food served were also styled to resemble Twitter birds or eggs! There was also this mean blue Casa Noble drink which got people woozy. Here are a few photos:

The stage

Twitter Ice Sculpture

Twitter Birds hanging from the ceiling!

No, Twitter was not a sponsor of the Open Mic Night. Other than making the place a little more “techie” and “digital”, the Twitter theme came about because Manila Peninsula officially launched their Twitter account (click to follow) during the event. Let’s give Manila Peninsula some love by following them since they were one of the sponsors of the Open Mic Night!

Program Proper

Jay Jaboneta, one of the hosts of the IMMAP Open Mic Night

Jay Jaboneta, our host for the evening, kicked off the event by welcoming everyone to Salon De Ning. He gave a brief explanation about the Yellow Boat Project and then moved on to calling IMMAP Vice President Pao Pena to the stage for his opening remarks.

Pao Pena

On a more personal note let me just take this opportunity to commend Pao for his work. I saw how much effort he put into the Open Mic Night since I joined some of the meetings since TV5 was a sponsor. He really did everything he could (given he already has a lot of stuff to do for work) to make the Open Mic Night a success.

Anyway, after Pao’s opening remarks all the speakers were presented and they each had one shot of tequila and a quick introduction. The challenge was to introduce themselves in 140 characters (Twitter style~). Several of the speakers got the crowd laughing early with their intros, especially Ivy Almario with her legendary “I thought it was What Rocks my Sex” line.

Let the Fishbowl begin

After the introductions the speakers were divided into their groups and directed to their respective areas for the simultaneous talks on their topics (#Bawal, #WhatRocksMySocks, #ItsMoreFunInThePhilippines). This was when it became a little messy. People were a bit confused on where to go and how to go start the talks. It’s a good thing the facilitators (Andre Yap, Ana Oposa, and Nasser Lubay) were able to reign in the crowd so that eventually all three fishbowls could start. I heard that the #Bawal and #WhatRocksMySocks areas were okay and that they were able to run well even without a microphone for the speaker. It was a bit difficult at the #ItsMoreFunInThePhilippines since people had a really hard time hearing the talks but eventually it became better when the people at the sides started to quiet down and the speakers started to “shout”, lol.

#WhatRocksMySocks Speakers relaxing a bit before they give their talks (Noemi, Marthyn, Flash, and Manny O.)

Acee Vitangcol at the #Bawal Fishbowl giving his talk

I wasn’t able to hear all of the talks. In fact I think I was only able to listen to David Guerrero. It’s a good thing though that TV5 (Yay) recorded everything on video. Our team is currently cutting up the videos and uploading the talks of the speakers at this site. So far the #Bawal and #WhatRocksMySocks videos have been uploaded already. The #ItsMoreFunInThePhilippines should go up sometime later today.

Here are some of the talks that I really liked:

Marthyn Cuan, CIO Meralco

Definitely agree with Marthyn that there’s so much potential here in the Philippines for technology based start-ups. Looking forward to Ideaspace!

Manny Osmena, Manny O. Wines

A short narrative of Manny’s life and how he ended up going back to the Lord. The first half was a bit weird but man the last part was powerful. Especially when he talked about his wife.

Noemi Dado, Blogger

I loved Noemi’s talk. Maybe because I could relate so much to her since I’m a blogger myself. She was very sincere and you could see that every word she said was from her heart. One line that really stuck was this one:

I’m not a journalist. I just use common sense. I want things fair.

I’ll try to post more talks later especially the one by InterAksyon.Com Editor-in-Chief Roby Alampay. I’m just waiting for the team to upload.

Taken by cars, Raffle

After the speakers gave their respective talks I think they had a plenary session. I can’t confirm this since I went out of the venue briefly to make calls and arrange interviews with the News Team. When I came back in I saw Taken By Cars doing their set. After an interview with them we went to the most fun part of the evening… the RAFFLE!

Borgy Manotoc talking about Casa Noble before giving out the prizes to the best dressed (judged by Brian Tenorio)

Lucky lady who won the Lumia! Photo with the Corp Comm Manager of Nokia Philippines, Nikka Abes

Reading the card of the winner. We actually gave the prize to the second card we picked. Sadly the guy who we picked first left the event already. (Sadness for him!)

All the sponsors had goodies up for grabs! Lenovo Mobile gave away a couple of phones. Nokia gave a way a brand spanking new Nokia Lumia 800. Casa Noble, represented by their endorser Borgy Manotoc, gave away several bottles of their premium tequila to the best dressed of the evening. Manila Peninsula raffle away a 2-night stay in one of their rooms. Lastly TV5 raffled away a brand new iPad.

Drinks and socials

Jay Jaboneta closed the event after the raffles. Most of the people left after but I heard that a lot of them went to different bars and restaurants for their night caps. Me and my team decided to just hang out at Salon De Ning for a few more drinks and then we went to Whistle Stop in Makati for very late dinner.

Lovely ladies of the TV5 New Media Department

The event was a blast. There’s definitely room for improvement but I had tons of fun! It’s always an awesome experience to go to industry events like this one, especially since this was more social, not formal. You get to “hang out” with the peeps and not just “network”.

Congratulations to Pao Pena and all the organizers (especially Ysobel and Loud Whistle) and volunteers! I’m looking forward to the next IMMAP Open Mic Night which I heard will be organized by Carlos Palma this time around (kaya mo yan bro, lol).

Before I end this post let me just give a shout out to the people from TV5 who were there at the event: Chucky, Ram, Hannah, Sheena, Roanna, Manny, Leng, Berine (with the CSD team), Ben (News 5) and his crew, Jeng, Gelo, Mogs, Redi, and Sheila!